Instrument of Slaughter by Edward Marston

Author:Edward Marston
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: cookie429, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 9780749012502
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2012-01-14T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

After a hectic morning in the lorry, Alice Marmion drove it back to the depot and brought it to a juddering halt. She looked across at Vera Dowling.

‘I don’t like the sound of the engine.’

‘Neither do I,’ said Vera. ‘Something is wrong.’

‘Let’s see if we can find out what it is.’

Alice switched off the engine and got out of the lorry. Vera went to fetch the toolbox in the back of the vehicle. By the time she brought it to her friend, Alice had lifted the bonnet and was peering underneath it.

‘Don’t touch anything,’ warned Vera. ‘It will be piping hot.’

‘I’m afraid that it could be something serious.’

‘We could always go to that garage and ask the mechanic to help us.’

Alice was derisive. ‘Ask a man to bail us out?’ she said. ‘This is the WEC, Vera. We sort out our own problems.’

‘Well, don’t expect me to do anything. I don’t know the first thing about engines – except that they get very hot after a while.’ She wiped perspiration from her brow. ‘They’re a bit like me.’

They’d spent several hours delivering bedding to various emergency accommodation sites. It had meant loading and unloading the lorry a number of times and they were tired. While Alice continued to scrutinise the engine, Vera leant against the side of the vehicle. Hannah Billington emerged from her office and marched across to them.

‘What seems to be the trouble?’ she asked.

‘We don’t know, Mrs Billington,’ replied Vera.

Alice was more positive. ‘We’ll soon find out when the engine cools down,’ she said, turning to the newcomer. ‘It was starting to pull and making a funny noise.’

‘It was a bit scary.’

‘There was no danger, Vera.’

‘You never know. It might have been sabotage.’

‘Don’t be absurd,’ said Hannah. ‘Who would sabotage our lorry?’

‘I was only thinking of what my friend told me about the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.’

Hannah was reproachful. ‘Oh, come on, please. You should have mastered the initials by now. And what did this friend from the WAAC tell you?’

‘Well,’ said Vera, discomfited by the rebuke, ‘when she first started driving a thirty-hundredweight van, the men were very jealous.’

‘Why aren’t we surprised?’ asked Alice, jocularly.

‘They did all sorts of things to slow her down. They cut her petrol pipe halfway through, they unscrewed valves, they even changed over the leads on the sparking plugs. What upset her most, however,’ she went on, ‘was that they emptied the paraffin out of her lamps. When it got dark and she tried to light them, nothing happened. That was a cruel trick.’

‘Nobody would dare to do that to my drivers,’ said Hannah. ‘Any vehicles parked here are watched carefully day and night. Luckily, we’ve got enterprising young women like Alice who can turn their hand to vehicle maintenance as well as to driving. You should follow in her footsteps, Vera.’

‘Not me – I’m all fingers and thumbs.’

‘Learn from Alice. It’s only a question of application.’

‘I’ve tried, Mrs Billington, I really have.’

‘You must make more effort, woman,’ said Hannah, curtly.

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